Havas, Arby’s and Carat lead the Digiday Awards finalists

This year’s Digiday Awards shortlist was announced live from E! News Studios in Los Angeles by our November 14th gala’s host, Zuri Hall. You can check out the video below.

Whether you were selling roast beef sandwiches or evolving in the Age of Transparency, 2018 was a tough year to navigate.

Arby’s, Carat and Havas Media Group are among the group of finalists being recognized for standout work this past year in the 2018 Digiday Awards, the industry’s annual celebration of the companies, campaigns and creative that are modernizing media and marketing.

Arby’s is up for Brand of the Year while Havas Media Group and Carat are among the finalists for Agency of the Year. Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the finalists for some of the top honors:

Agency of the YearIt’s no secret that 2018 has been tough on agencies and Code & Theory, Havas Media Group and Work & Co. are among the group that are being honored for rising to the occasion.

Havas Media group was named a finalist after launching Meaningful Media, a platform that helps companies sift through data to uncover which media decisions would be most meaningful for the success of their brands. Code & Theory was recognized for their work creating an all-new NBC News digital site system, along with their work launching the new American Bar Association website, which includes a robust publishing site, membership platform, personalized logged-in experience and more. Work & Co., Day One Agency, Noble People and Lippe Taylor round out the finalists for this year’s Agency of the Year.

Brand of the YearJetBlue, HP and Arby’s are among those in the running for Brand of the Year. Innovative marketing, advertising and customer engagement was a common theme in helping each of these finalists stand out. JetBlue was named a finalist after creating a board game for the holidays that came with a real ticket for a JetBlue flight. “Get Packing!” sold out within seconds, crashing its product page on Amazon; those who were able to buy it auctioned it off for upwards of $9,999.00.

HP became a finalist for its mission to connect with customers on a human level, from driving systemic change in the industry through measurable diversity and inclusion initiatives, to leading groundbreaking marketing research around the cultural truths that unite us. With this in mind, HP launched a powerful series of videos dedicated to recruiting diverse talent, created “Togetherness,” a campaign dedicated to bridging the divide among Americans in a time of uncertainty and conducted research in 2018 proving that ads created by diverse teams perform better. As a result, the company’s valuation has grown significantly, Brand Monitor’s shown a 6-point increase in purchase intent, revenue per impressions has risen and net promoter scores are at an all-time high.

Comparable successes and initiatives from Airbnb, Macallan and Microsoft News are also competing for Digiday’s Brand of the Year.

Best Branding Consumer Campaign Carat, VICE Media and Publicis.Sapient are all up for this year’s Best Branding Consumer Campaign. Carat was named a finalist for their work with Smirnoff on the Smirnoff Equalizer, an API that measured and presented a Spotify user with the average number of male and female artists they listened to. The Smirnoff Equalizer empowered change by providing a personalized ‘equalized’ playlist of men and women artists, based on their listening habits, and a ‘slider’ that allowed them to add even more women artists to their playlist. This led to a 52 percent increase of women artists streamed through Spotify, and 2.7 million opportunities for women artists to be discovered.

VICE Media was recognized for their work with Airbnb on Experiences, guided tours in major markets around the world. VICE provided custom experiences designed specifically for millennials seeking adventure. After just three weeks of launching special tours in New York, Tokyo, Paris and Cape Town, VICE generated over 66M in branded campaign impressions across platforms, increased brand awareness by 11 percent and created a 22 percent lift in booking intent. Similar successes from SCC, MullenLowe and OMD are among those under consideration for this year’s Best Branding Consumer Campaign.

View the full list of finalists below. We’ll announce the winners at the Digiday Awards Gala on Nov. 14, 2018 at The Lighthouse in New York City. Tickets are available for purchase here.